Howard Hanson, whose parents were of Swedish origin, began to study music when he was only seven years old. His formal music studies took place at three institutions: the University of Nebraska, the Institute of Musical Art in New York City (later to be better known as the Juilliard School) and finally at Northwestern University, Illinois, from which he graduated in 1916. Later he taught theory and composition at the College of the Pacific at San José, California from 1918 to 1921, when he won the first American Prix de Rome. During the three years that he spent in Rome he studied with Respighi and his first symphony, subtitled ‘Nordic’, was performed for the first time by the Augusteo Orchestra of Rome in 1922.
Following his return to America in 1924 Hanson conducted the Rochester Symphony Orchestra in the same work and was engaged by George Eastman, the founder of the Kodak photographic company, to direct his newly-endowed Eastman School of Music. He remained as director of the school for forty years, resigning in 1964 when he became the director of the University of Rochester’s Institute for American Music. The Institute’s purpose was to publish and disseminate American music, a cause very close to Hanson’s heart throughout his life. From 1925 onwards, he conducted many new works by American composers at the American Music Festivals in Rochester, which once again were supported by George Eastman. In addition he established the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastman-Rochester Wind Ensemble, which was conducted by his colleague Frederick Fennell. During his time at the Eastman School of Music he was influential in establishing the degree of doctor of music in composition, and was a great supporter of American composers: it has been estimated that he performed more than one thousand works by six hundred different American composers.
Hanson was also active as a guest conductor throughout the USA and Europe. He appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1933 conducting a programme of American music, and had a particularly close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. For this orchestra he wrote what is probably his best-known composition: the Symphony No. 2, ‘Romantic’. This was commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the BSO and was given its first performance by the orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky in 1930; it was later to achieve international fame as the theme music of the film Alien. Hanson’s opera Merry Mount was commissioned and first performed by the Metropolitan Opera in 1934, with Tullio Serafin conducting, and a fine recording of the first performance has been preserved.
During his lifetime Hanson received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his Symphony No. 4, ‘Requiem’ (also premièred by the BSO under the composer himself in 1943), and was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1979. He was also awarded thirty-six honorary degrees in the USA alone.
Hanson’s numerous commercial recordings grew out of his enthusiasm for disseminating knowledge about contemporary American music and his leadership of the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra. The origins of these recordings were outlined by Frederick Fennell in interview: ‘Howard Hanson, the director of the school, was totally dedicated to the idea… that the native American musician should have some sort of chance in his own country… He pursued this in all kinds of ways. As director of the Eastman School he petitioned the board of managers of the school for a fund of money with which he could start a publishing program, first of all, of contemporary American music… Then he said to them the next dimension has to be the recording, because the recording is very important. They gave him an initial grant of $10,000. This was in 1939. And, by the way, that $10,000 is still making records. Out of this grant he made his first recordings for Victor in the 78 days, and they didn’t do very much… After that he went to Columbia, briefly, and they didn’t do very much either. And he was sort of sitting around waiting for something to happen or trying to find something to happen, when the LP era was born, and the man who knows more… than any living man about the recording industry and about recording repertory, David Hall, who was at that time the director of the newly formed symphonic division of Mercury Records… he knew that Dr Hanson was looking for a place to place his recording contract. He came to Rochester and negotiated a recording contract with Dr Hanson, but the contract included the whole school, not just the Eastman-Rochester orchestra. He wanted the faculty in chamber music, he wanted the chorus, he wanted the Eastman-Rochester orchestra, and he wanted band music. That’s how it happened.’ (Frederick Fennell in interview with Quin Mathews, Fanfare).
While the earlier recordings for RCA and Columbia should not be discounted completely (they include for instance one of Hanson’s very few recordings of music by a composer who was not American, the RCA disc of Grieg’s Holberg Suite), it is undoubtedly his recordings for the Mercury label which stand as a lasting monument to Hanson’s skills as a conductor and his tireless advocacy of the music of the USA. While this large catalogue includes recordings of music by composers who have achieved international recognition, such as Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Charles Ives and Hanson himself, it also embraces composers who have maintained a more specifically American profile, such as John Alden Carpenter, Charles Griffes, Roy Harris, Charles Loeffler, Peter Mennin, Edward MacDowell, Colin McPhee, Walter Piston, Wallingford Riegger, Roger Sessions, William Schuman and Virgil Thomson to name just a few. Because of their wide spread of repertoire, these recordings are in effect a record of informed taste in the field of American music at the middle of the last century. They stand as testament not only to Hanson’s skill as a conductor, but to his extraordinary influence upon American music throughout his life.
See also Howard Hanson's composer profile.
